Employers have had cold feet about extending maternity leave but the Malta Employers’ Association yesterday said it was confident of reaching an agreement with the government.
A four-week maternity leave increase was announced in Monday’s Budget speech.
Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said two weeks would be added to the existing 14 weeks in 2012, with an additional two weeks in 2013. The government will bear the cost of the four extra weeks at a rate of €160 a week.
The move would be implemented, after discussion in the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development, by the end of the year. The minister’s wording left some observers wondering whether the maternity leave increase hinged on agreement within the Malta Council for Social and Economic Development.
But a ministry spokesman yesterday confirmed the government was committed to introducing the measure.
Expectations were bolstered by the comments of Malta Employers’ Association director general Joseph Farrugia, who said the association was confident of an agreement on the issue.
The MEA is concerned that the maternity leave increase could have negative repercussions on small- and medium-sized enterprises, depriving them of vital staff for a further four-week period. This notwithstanding, Mr Farrugia said, “the MEA is not against the increase in principle” but that it felt further discussion was needed on certain issues.
He gave examples of issues the MEA would raise. “Will working mothers still be obliged to work for at least six months after maternity leave? Is the government willing to absorb some of the cost of existing maternity leave?”
In Malta, as opposed to most European countries, maternity leave is paid by employers rather than by the government. The increase in maternity leave is designed to encourage women to join the workforce, with Malta’s female labour participation of 38 per cent being the lowest within the EU.
Labour studies and former chair of the Malta Confederation of Women’s Organisations, Anna Borg, welcomed the increase.
Ms Borg also commended the government on its intention to foot the bill for the extra weeks and went one further: “In the long run, the government should assume the cost of all maternity leave,” in line with Europe.
The current system of making employers pay for maternity leave served to discourage employers from hiring women, Ms Borg said. “This should be a longer-term objective for the government. It should see it as an investment, getting more mothers to enter the labour market. It’s a win-win.”
Childbirth educator Marianne Theuma said the extra leave would benefit the mother-child relationship but parents would have been better served by more parenting education instead.